A federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision Thursday which prevented the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a> from enforcing a COVID <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vaccine-mandate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vaccine mandate</a> for federal employees.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued a rare en banc ruling that reversed a prior decision enacted by three judges from the same court, which had upheld the vaccine mandate. A preliminary injunction issued in January 2022 by Judge Jeffrey Brown in the Southern District of Texas was therefore affirmed by the most recent decision.
“We hasten to emphasize that this case only involves a preliminary injunction. The preliminary injunction’s purpose is to maintain the status quo until the parties have the chance to adjudicate the merits,” the <a href="https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/22/22-40043-CV3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decision</a> said. “When the parties proceed to the merits in the district court, the plaintiffs will have to prove that whatever injunction they request is broad enough to protect against their proven injuries and no broader. And the government will have another chance to show that any permanent injunction should be narrower than the preliminary one.”
Judges from the Fifth Circuit Court noted that both sides will “have to grapple” with the recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-admits-it-will-end-covid-emergency-in-may-in-a-letter-telling-republicans-not-to-end-covid-emergency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> from President Joe Biden revealing that the national emergency issued in response to COVID is slated to end in May. White House officials will reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-covid-response-team-will-disband-in-may-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disband</a> its COVID response team as the national emergency concludes.
The lawsuit against the vaccine mandate for federal employees was filed by Feds for Medical Freedom, a nonprofit that represents government workers across multiple agencies who oppose COVID vaccine mandates and sanctions against those who refuse to be inoculated. “Dedicated public employees have answered the call of duty and served throughout the pandemic, no matter the risk,” the group says on its <a href="https://www.feds4medfreedom.org/who-we-are" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. “We believe that the government should not fire workers because of health conditions or medically-informed health care decisions.”​
Analysts have expressed doubt that vaccine mandates, which were issued in several major cities shortly after the lockdown orders that crippled businesses and shuttered government schools, effectively prevented the transmission of COVID. Researchers at George Mason University recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/citywide-vaccine-mandates-did-nothing-to-stop-spread-of-covid-researchers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">examined</a> vaccine mandates in cities such as Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia, and concluded that there exists “no evidence that the announcement or implementation of indoor vaccine mandates in the cities listed had any significant effect on vaccine uptake,” as well as cases or deaths related to the illness.
The continued legal action over the federal vaccine mandate comes after the Biden administration sought in November 2021 to require companies with more than 100 employees to require COVID vaccinations or weekly testing. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration could have fined businesses as much as $14,000 for each violation.
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The Daily Wire, along with Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Dhillon Law Group and the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-year-after-supreme-court-struck-down-covid-vax-mandate-freedom-flourishes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against the Biden administration challenging the mandate, prompting the Supreme Court to rule against the requirement for private employers in January 2022. Major employers such as Starbucks, Intel, and Adidas dropped their vaccine mandates after the decision. “The constitution simply doesn’t grant the federal government the power to insert itself into employment relationships this way,” Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing said at the time. “And even if it did, Congress certainly never delegated that power to OSHA.”

Joe Biden

Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Biden Vaccine Mandate For Federal Workers

Court Rules Against Biden Vaccine Mandate For Federal Workers

Biden Administration

COVID

COVID-19

COVID-19 Vaccine

Lawsuit

U.S.

Vaccine Mandate

Way back in 1998, internet media pioneer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/matt-drudge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Drudge</a> told a room full of reporters, &#8220;You would be amazed what the ordinary guy knows.&#8221;
It was probably the truest statement ever made in U.S. politics. Americans were reminded of its wisdom yet again after clips from the new PBS documentary &#8220;American Masters: Dr. Tony Fauci&#8221; showed the face of the pandemic, Fauci, getting blasted by &#8220;ordinary&#8221; citizens in one of the roughest, toughest parts of the nation&#8217;s capital over his claims about the COVID vaccine and the pandemic itself.
In the summer of 2021, Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and Fauci went door-to-door in Southeast D.C. trying to evangelize the residents into becoming true believers in the COVID vaccine. The evidence indicates that the pair got more than they bargained for.
A man and woman speaking in the documentary clips getting the most attention have been retroactively proven right on just about every point that they raised to the two &#8220;experts.&#8221;
&#8220;People in America are not settled with the information given, so I&#8217;m not going to be lining up taking a shot on a vaccination for something that wasn&#8217;t clear in the first place,&#8221; the unidentified man said.
He even questioned how a vaccine could be trusted when it was created at such blazing speed.
&#8220;And then you all take a shot in miraculous time. It takes years to create a vaccine,&#8221; he continued.
&#8220;Nine months is definitely not enough for nobody to be taking no vaccination that you all came up with,&#8221; he argued.
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Bowser meekly defended the vaccination by saying, &#8220;The only reason I&#8217;m talking to you right now, as close as we are, is that I&#8217;ve been vaccinated. But if thousands of people like you don&#8217;t get vaccinated, you&#8217;re going to let this virus continue to percolate in this country and in this world.&#8221;
The man would not budge.
&#8220;Something like the common flu then, right?&#8221; the man interjected.
After some back and forth, with Fauci arguing that COVID is way more dangerous than the flu, Bowser appeared to understand that she had been defeated.
&#8220;You gonna pass?&#8221; she asked.
&#8220;When you start talking about paying people to get vaccinated, when you start trying to incentivize people with other things, then something else is going on,&#8221; he added.
As the public health team walked away, he shouted after them that their &#8220;campaign is about fear. It&#8217;s about inciting fear in people. You all attack people with fear.&#8221; That&#8217;s what this pandemic is. It&#8217;s a fear, it&#8217;s fear, this pandemic. That&#8217;s all it is.&#8221;
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This guy speaks with more clarity and conviction on COVID and the jab than 99% of Republicans. <a href="https://t.co/VQQ5OL3rEw">pic.twitter.com/VQQ5OL3rEw</a>
&mdash; Tim Meads (@TimMeadsUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimMeadsUSA/status/1637831514514702341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
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That same man disagreed with the official COVID death toll count.
Well, we know the gentleman is correct. Now, folks like Fauci are saying Americans will &#8220;likely&#8221; learn to live with COVID as we do the flu. It&#8217;s seasonal and here to stay. Fauci himself <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-now-says-hospitals-are-overcounting-covid-19-cases-in-children-because-they-automatically-get-tested-sound-familiar?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=dwbrand&amp;fbclid=IwAR1tALbb_xfpaC9N_-pYA0-GMod7Y3k7Y_NIbr3ykviFGK4e3d25rAOlXg0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted that COVID deaths</a> were being overcounted in some instances in 2021.
Then there was another woman in Anacostia who also wasn&#8217;t picking up what Fauci was putting down.
&#8220;Well, I heard that [the vaccine] doesn&#8217;t cure it and doesn&#8217;t stop you from getting it &#8230; sooo,&#8221; she said, perhaps wondering what the point was.
&#8220;On the very, very, very very rare chance that you do get it even if you&#8217;re vaccinated, you don&#8217;t even feel sick. It&#8217;s like you don&#8217;t even know you got infected. It&#8217;s very, very good at protecting you.&#8221;
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Anacostia resident: &quot;I head the [vaccine] doesn&#39;t cure it and doesn&#39;t stop you from getting it.&quot;
Fauci: &quot;On the rare chance that you do get it even when you&#39;re vaccinated, you don&#39;t even feel sick. It&#39;s like you don&#39;t even know you got infected. It&#39;s very good at protecting you&quot; <a href="https://t.co/QueSljq3kk">pic.twitter.com/QueSljq3kk</a>
&mdash; Greg Price (@greg_price11) <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1637859065761079301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Contrary to Fauci&#8217;s insistence that the vaccines work as advertised except in &#8220;very, very, very rare&#8221; occasions, we know that &#8220;breakthrough&#8221; infections occur and that the vax touted by Fauci at that time became less effective over time. Five shots later, and now health officials say Americans should get a yearly shot — again, like the flu. Other data show that natural immunity is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/natural-immunity-protective-covid-vaccine-severe-illness-rcna71027" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as protective</a> against severe illness and death from COVID.
In other words, the &#8220;ordinary&#8221; guys appear to be right and the self-proclaimed experts were wrong on COVID. It is nothing new, but it sure is nice seeing it on camera.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 11: Washington DC Mayor Murial Bowser participates in a virtual meeting with Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus on June 11, 2021 in Washington, DC. Fauci spoke on the urgency to get all eligible individuals vaccinated against COVID-19. design – 2023-03-20T155936.486

WATCH: D.C. Residents Shred Fauci, The Door-To-Door COVID Vax Salesman, In 2021

Anthony Fauci

Muriel Bowser

Washington D.C.

Wuhan

The 2023 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/oscars">Oscars</a> show got its first bump in the ratings since the 2020 broadcast of the annual event, but it still failed to get anywhere close to the numbers the show had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fans tuned in to see what would happen when the 95th Academy Awards were broadcast from Los Angeles on Sunday, with the ABC show scoring an average of 18.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen data, the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-03-13/audience-for-abcs-telecast-of-the-oscars-is-largest-since-2020">Los Angeles Times</a> reported.
The ratings for the star-studded event held at the Dolby Theater are up 12% over the the numbers from the year before. It was the best showing for tinseltown&#8217;s biggest night since 2020, when the show brought in an audience of 23.6 million.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
TV Ratings: Oscars Rise to Three-Year High <a href="https://t.co/kOXKKwA9DU">https://t.co/kOXKKwA9DU</a>
&mdash; The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) <a href="https://twitter.com/THR/status/1635401491677691915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
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To put Sunday&#8217;s numbers into context, the 2022 Oscars averaged 16.7 million viewers, going up 58% over the telecast&#8217;s all-time low in 2021 of 10.5 million viewers.
The 94th Academy Awards ratings explosion was most likely aided by images and reports that surfaced on social media of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/will-smith">Will Smith</a> walking up on stage and slapping <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chris-rock">Chris Rock</a> in the face, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-smith-struck-chris-rock-in-the-face-at-oscars-after-he-cracked-a-joke-about-jada-pinkett-smiths-hair-loss">reported</a>.
However, Sunday&#8217;s numbers for ABC are still dismal compared to the show pre-pandemic in 2019 which had nearly 30 million people tune in to watch their favorite stars and see which films would win.
The outlet noted that the 2023 Oscars seemed more upbeat than the annual awards show since the pandemic shut down Hollywood and the world.
&#8220;Indiana Jones&#8221; star <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/indiana-jones-actor-ke-huy-quan-gets-emotional-during-golden-globes-acceptance-speech">Ke Huy Quan</a> scored an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the sci-fi movie &#8220;Everything Everywhere All At Once.&#8221; After being named winner, the actor gave an inspirational acceptance speech about the American Dream, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oscar-winner-ke-huy-quan-gets-emotional-about-the-american-dream">reported</a>.
&#8220;My mom is 84 years old and she’s at home watching,&#8221; Quan told the room full of stars Sunday night. &#8220;Mom, I just won an Oscar!&#8221;
&#8220;My journey started on a boat,&#8221;  the Vietnam-born actor added. &#8220;I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow, I ended up here, on Hollywood&#8217;s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it&#8217;s happening to me. This … this is the American Dream!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/indiana-jones-actor-ke-huy-quan-gets-emotional-during-golden-globes-acceptance-speech">&#8216;Indiana Jones&#8217; Actor Ke Huy Quan Gets Emotional During Golden Globes Acceptance Speech</a>

Oscar Statuettes For The 76th Academy Awards Displayed In Hollywood

Oscars See First Bump In Ratings Since 2020, But Still Suffering To Get Numbers Pre-Pandemic

Celebrities

Entertainment

Hollywood

Oscars

Ratings

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, over the weekend for making statements about the origins of COVID that are not supported by the findings of the U.S. intelligence community.
Turner made the remarks during an interview on Sunday with Martha Raddatz on ABC News&#8217;s &#8220;This Week&#8221; when asked about why he and the Department of Energy concluded that the pandemic likely originated from a lab in China.
&#8220;I think there&#8217;s significant evidence that lends itself to that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why you just saw unanimously both the Senate and the House pass legislation demanding that the administration declassify the intelligence the intelligence community has with respect to COVID-19. It is incredibly frustrating for members of Congress to watch Dr. Fauci go on television and say things that are absolutely not supported by the intelligence. We&#8217;re seeing the intelligence. It&#8217;s not like we voted to say, show us the intelligence. We&#8217;ve seen it. We’ve voted to say, show the American people.&#8221;
&#8220;They’re not getting the straight answer from Dr. Fauci or from this administration,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They need to be able to see for themselves that they &#8212; what has occurred. And I understand that Dr. Fauci has a reason to say that there was not a lab leak, because he was actively working to fund the lab in – in Wuhan. So, you – you see a gentleman who is – who is biased.&#8221;
&#8220;The evidence totally shows it, that there is funds over which he has control that ended up at the Wuhan lab,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;So, at this time, you&#8217;ve got a guy who&#8217;s going on national television, I believe, and I think members of Congress believe, saying things that are not reflected in the intelligence. So, our view is, show the American public the intelligence and then you can have the intelligence in front of you. And the next time Dr. Fauci’s on you can say, hey, but the intelligence actually says x, and you can challenge him.&#8221;
WATCH:
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As U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided over COVID-19 origins, Republican Rep. Mike Turner criticizes Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Unanimously both the Senate and the House passed legislation demanding that the administration declassify the intelligence.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/2jPydU4FUX">https://t.co/2jPydU4FUX</a> <a href="https://t.co/ule5CXFshh">pic.twitter.com/ule5CXFshh</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1634922115169222656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2023</a></blockquote>
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS HOST: I want to turn to Covid origins. You&#8217;ve said that you believe Covid originated from a Chinese lab leak based on significant evidence. The Department of Energy said it has concluded the same, but with low confidence. Why are you so certain?
REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): Well, actually what I said is, I think there&#8217;s significant evidence that lends itself to that. And – and I still do. That&#8217;s why you just saw unanimously both the Senate and the House pass legislation demanding that the administration declassify the intelligence the intelligence community has with respect to Covid-19. It is incredibly frustrating for members of Congress to watch Dr. Fauci go on television and say things that are absolutely not supported by the intelligence. We&#8217;re seeing the intelligence. It&#8217;s not like we voted to say, show us the intelligence. We&#8217;ve seen it. We’ve voted to say, show the American people. They’re not getting the straight answer from Dr. Fauci or from this administration. They need to be able to see for themselves that they &#8212; what has occurred. And I understand that Dr. Fauci has a reason to say that there was not a lab leak, because he was actively working to fund the lab in – in Wuhan. So, you – you see a gentleman who is – who is biased. I think this (INAUDIBLE) in public this straight &#8212;
RADDATZ: I think Dr. Fauci would dispute that.
TURNER: Well, I think the evidence totally shows it, that there is funds over which he has control that ended up at the Wuhan lab. So, at this time, you&#8217;ve got a guy who&#8217;s going on national television, I believe, and I think members of Congress believe, saying things that are not reflected in the intelligence. So, our view is, show the American public the intelligence and then you &#8212; Martha, you can have the intelligence in front of you. And the next time Dr. Fauci’s on you can say, hey, but the intelligence actually says x, and you can challenge him.</blockquote>

Top Lawmaker On Intel Committee: It’s ‘Incredibly Frustrating’ To Watch Fauci Say Things That Are ‘Not Reflected’ In Intel

Top Lawmaker On Intel Committee: It's 'Incredibly Frustrating' To Watch Fauci Say Things That Are 'Not Reflected' In Intel

Congress

Politics

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> voted overwhelmingly on Friday morning to approve the declassification of all <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a> intelligence on the origins of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID</a>.
The House voted 419-0 in favor of the bipartisan measure, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/10/covid-origins-bill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Axios</a>. The Senate voted unanimously last week to approve a similar measure. The bill would require the declassification and release of all intelligence related to the origins of COVID and the virus’ possible connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) within 90 days of receiving the president’s signature.
The Department of Energy and FBI both delivered assessments recently that concluded that COVID most likely originated in a leak from the Wuhan lab. The theory, known as the lab leak hypothesis and pursued by Republicans, was dismissed as a conspiracy theory early on in the pandemic by top medical and science officials, including former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.
Investigations into the origin of COVID have been hampered by China, which has rebuffed requests for information and access for investigators. Beijing has floated that COVID did not originate in Wuhan at all, and instead is a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/asia/coronavirus-china-conspiracy-theory.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">creation</a> of the U.S. military.
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Many Republicans have continued to push the lab leak theory as the most likely origin of the pandemic virus that killed millions globally.
“The American public deserves answers to every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic, including how this virus was created and specifically, whether it was a natural occurrence of was the result of a lab-related event,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-dems-gop-vote-unanimously-declassify-covid-origins-intel-send-bill-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>.
“The House intelligence committee, which oversees our intelligence community, is aware of classified information that could help inform the public why COVID-19 as a lab leak theory is not just a possibility, but approaches the idea that it is likely,” he continued.
The Department of Energy, with its <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-energy-department-lab-investigating-covid-knows-what-its-talking-about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">network</a> of national laboratories and specialists in biological weapons, is the latest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community to determine that the likeliest origin of COVID is a lab-related incident. Last month, the department reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-intel-prompts-energy-dept-to-assess-covid-likely-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shifted</a> its conclusion from undecided to “low confidence” in the lab leak hypothesis with new information, though it is unclear what that new information is.
The FBI assessed in 2021 that the lab leak theory is most likely the correct theory with “moderate confidence.”
The National Intelligence Council and four agencies have ruled against the lab leak theory in favor of the natural emergence hypothesis that says COVID originated in an animal species and somehow made its way into humanity.

House Votes 419-0 To Declassify All Intel On COVID Origins

Bill To Declassify Intel On COVID Origins Heads To Biden’s Desk After House Vote

U.S. House of Representatives

White House

Megyn Kelly blasted Dr. Anthony Fauci, calling him a liar who protected China by promulgating the idea that COVID did not originate from a lab leak.
“Let’s talk about Dr. Fauci and his lies,” Kelly began on her podcast. “This guy, it’s amazing he&#8217;s gotten away with this. It’s amazing the mainstream media doesn&#8217;t show more interest in what are clearly lies, they come out every week, but they just love their little Fauci superhero doll. Each one of them goes to sleep with it at their bedside every night, and no narrative can be advanced that contradicts it.”
Kelly cited the article in Nature Medicine released early in the pandemic authored by virologists that argued COVID came from “natural origin” and not from a lab leak. She said Francis Collins, then head of the NIH, joined Fauci to use the article as an independent claim not connected to them to buttress their claim that the virus did not derive from a lab leak.
“So lab leak is racist, take a seat if you’re a ‘lab leaker,’” Kelly recalled. “You’re a fringey conspiracy theorist.”
“Fauci went so far as to basically pretend he didn&#8217;t even know these people who wrote the report. Like ‘I can&#8217;t even remember the names of who were on this paper,’” Kelly said.
Fauci said at the time: “There was a study recently that we can make available to you where a group of highly-qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences there, the sequences in bats, as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human. So the paper will be available. I don&#8217;t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you.”
“He can’t even remember who it was,” Kelly mocked. She cited Kristian Andersen, one of the authors of the study, who admitted in February 2020, “Our main work &#8230; has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory.”
“So it wasn’t objective; it wasn’t some kind of open-minded search,” Kelly asserted.
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Andersen claimed that on a February 1, 2020, conference call, Fauci did not attempt to influence the authors of the study, but the House Select Committee called that claim “demonstrably false,” citing Andersen’s letter to Nature on February 20 that Fauci and Collins had prompted their study.
“It was all lies,” Kelly said. “Every day we get new emails that show Fauci&#8217;s been lying and his little virologists who&#8217;ve participated in that Nature article, which they used to shame honest virologists out of saying it was a lab leak. It was all a Fauci operation — it was disinformation as the media likes to call it, and you&#8217;ll hear nothing about this in the mainstream media.”
“He is a little superhero to the Left, and they won&#8217;t report on this,&#8221; Kelly continued. “He&#8217;s been lying to us all along, of course his fingerprints were all over the Nature article. He didn&#8217;t give a s*** where the pandemic originated, because China.”
On Wednesday, former CDC Director Robert Redfield <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/antithetical-to-science-ex-cdc-director-takes-fauci-to-task-for-suppressing-lab-leak-theory/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> before the House Select Subcommittee, saying he had conducted calls with Fauci, WHO chief scientist Jeremy Farrar, and WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus where he “expressed as a clinical virologist that I felt it was not scientifically plausible that this virus went from a bat to humans and became one of the most infectious viruses that we have in humans.”
He added that he was excluded from further calls with the three men “because it was told to me that they wanted a single narrative and that I obviously had a different point of view.”

Megyn Kelly

‘He Didn’t Give A S*** … Because China’: Megyn Kelly Calls Fauci A Liar About COVID Origins

Megyn Kelly Calls Fauci A Liar About COVID Origins

Communist China

Health

Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield said Wednesday that American tax dollars funded gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that created COVID.
Speaking to the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Redfield doubled down on his history of disputing the collective narrative that COVID transmitted from a bat to a human and further testified that scientific research indicates that one of the most infectious viruses that impacted nearly seven million lives globally likely leaked from the Chinese Communist Party run-lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
After members of the subcommittee raised concerns about the origins of COVID, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) questioned the likelihood of American tax dollars funding the gain of function research that created the virus.
&#8220;I think it did,&#8221; Redfield said. &#8220;Not only from [National Institute of Health] but from the State Department, USAID, and from [Department of Defense].&#8221;
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Dr. Robert Redfield: &quot;There&#39;s No Doubt That NIH Funded Gain-of-Function Research&quot;
Ms. Malliotakis: &quot;Is it likely that American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?&quot;
Dr. Redfield: &quot;I think it did — not only from NIH but from the State… <a href="https://t.co/zLrT8CjFCZ">https://t.co/zLrT8CjFCZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/OqsTsb1hFg">pic.twitter.com/OqsTsb1hFg</a>
&mdash; The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) <a href="https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1633491748893728768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
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House Republicans scheduled the hearing after U.S. Energy Department officials revised a document that judged with &#8220;low confidence&#8221; that the virus had leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
New classified intelligence recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress showed Energy Department officials shifted their assessment of the pandemic&#8217;s origins in an updated 2021 report by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines&#8217;s office.
The updated classified report also affirms the view that COVID did not stem from a biological weapons program. A lack of a definitive animal source has led researchers and U.S. officials to suspect a leak from Wuhan&#8217;s assemblage of laboratories.
The subcommittee also pushed a new memo Sunday claiming new evidence suggests National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci &#8220;prompted the drafting&#8221; of &#8220;Proximal Origin&#8221; to disprove the lab leak theory, which Redfield dismissed as an &#8220;inaccurate paper&#8221; created to rally behind a constructed narrative the virus&#8217; genesis emerged from a wet market in Wuhan.
The evidence reviewed by the GOP-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic members shows Fauci and at least 12 other scientists, including former National Institute of Health director Dr. Francis Collins, were first warned the virus possibly leaked from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on a conference call during the early days of the pandemic.
Redfield said he believes Fauci and Collins intentionally excluded him from conference calls with other health officials to discuss the virus&#8217;s origins.
&#8220;I was quite upset as the CDC director that I was excluded in those discussions,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Why would they do this? Because I had a different point of view, and I was told they made a decision that they would keep this confidential.&#8221;
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Fauci dismissed Redfield&#8217;s accusation to Politico as &#8220;completely untrue.&#8221;
&#8220;No one excluded anyone,&#8221; he told POLITICO after the hearing, which he did not attend. &#8220;And the idea of saying that he was not wanted there because he had a different opinion … there were several people on the call who had the opinion that it might have been an engineered virus.&#8221;
Former President Donald Trump appointed Dr. Redfield as the CDC director in 2018 until stepping down from the position in 2021 when President Joe Biden ushered in a new administration.

House Select Subcommittee On The Coronavirus Pandemic Investigates The Origins Of COVID-19

Former CDC Director Says American Tax Dollars Funded Research At Wuhan Lab That Created COVID

House Republicans

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) went on a tear Wednesday against Dr. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-fauci" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anthony Fauci</a> over the longtime government health official&#8217;s resistance to the theory that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID</a> came from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.
&#8220;He was trying to cover his backside, and everybody knows it,&#8221; Jordan declared <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/investigating-the-origins-of-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during a hearing of the</a> Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. &#8220;And that&#8217;s the part that ticks us off.&#8221;
&#8220;This is the highest paid guy in our government getting all kinds of money to tell us things that were not accurate,&#8221; Jordan continued. &#8220;We now know U.S. tax dollars went to a lab in China, a lab that was not up to code, a lab that was doing gain-of-function research, and that&#8217;s where this thing most definitely came from.&#8221;
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WATCH: <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Jim_Jordan</a> DEMOLISHES Fauci’s COVID origins story <a href="https://t.co/k9muabjAS7">pic.twitter.com/k9muabjAS7</a>
&mdash; House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1633515940204691456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-intel-prompts-energy-dept-to-assess-covid-likely-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New intelligence reportedly led the Energy Department</a> to assess with &#8220;low confidence&#8221; that the pandemic likely began with a lab leak, a shift from its prior stance of being undecided. Some scientists and many Republicans have long claimed that the virus originated in a lab and that China has been engaged in a cover-up, which <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3087915/china-denies-coronavirus-cover-and-insists-relations-rest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beijing has denied</a>. Other U.S. agencies and a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/09/who-outlines-wuhan-findings-on-origins-of-covid-pandemic.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">preliminary World Health Organization assessment</a> from 2021 have placed more faith in the natural emergence theory — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-blames-attacks-on-china-not-china-for-covid-origins-impasse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a view that Fauci has favored</a>.
A longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci became the face of the federal government&#8217;s response to COVID during the Trump and Biden administrations. He even became President Joe Biden&#8217;s chief medical adviser, a role in which he served until his retirement from government at the end of last year.
Republicans who have pledged to investigate Fauci have placed a major focus on federal funding for bat coronavirus research with ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/04/fauci-says-rand-paul-egregiously-incorrect-about-gain-of-function-research.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vociferously denies</a> the work amounted to gain-of-function research. But money that went elsewhere also has attracted interest from investigators.
During his five minutes, Jordan raced through a timeline of events during the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 and questioned why a pair of leading virologists <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/covid-lab-leak-virologist-changed-tune-fauci-funding" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared to flip</a> from favoring the lab leak theory to rejecting the hypothesis without the emergence of new scientific data. A possible explanation, Jordan offered, was <a href="https://andersen-lab.com/new-niaid-funded-center-established/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a grant</a> for nearly $9 million. &#8220;There&#8217;s 9 million reasons why they changed their mind,&#8221; the congressman quipped.
Jordan also talked about how the government&#8217;s COVID task force kept former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, who was a witness at the hearing Wednesday, &#8220;out of the loop&#8221; for having a different view to not so quickly discount the theory that COVID emerged from a lab leak.
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&#8220;Keeping him out of the loop probably — potentially could have harmed America —&#8221; Jordan said, before taking a moment to collect his thoughts. &#8220;That&#8217;s the thing that ticks us all off,&#8221; he went on to say before expressing how important it is to get to the bottom of COVID&#8217;s origins.

Jim Jordan

SEE IT: Jim Jordan Goes On Tear Against Dr. Anthony Fauci Over COVID Origins

China

Everything is in flux following a report that the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the virus that causes COVID likely leaked from a coronavirus lab in Wuhan, China.
Since then, there have been other unsettling reports that shine a spotlight on just who said what and when.
For instance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s recently retired leading infectious disease expert, had long sought to sell the idea that the virus emerged naturally. Nearly three years ago, Fauci cited a study that found the virus’s mutations “consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”
“There was a study recently,” Fauci told reporters on April 17, 2020, when asked if it was possible that virus came from a Chinese lab, “where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences … in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.&#8221;
“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,&#8221; Fauci said.
But new emails revealed by House Republicans show a completely different story. The emails indicate Fauci &#8220;prompted&#8221; that very study to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan. In fact, he had final approval of the scientific paper he had commissioned, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/03/05/new-emails-show-fauci-commissioned-paper-to-disprove-wuhan-lab-leak-theory/">reported</a>.
Enter Dr. Jeremy Farrer. Like Fauci, he &#8220;prompted&#8221; the scientific paper. Farrar was then the head of the British nonprofit, the Wellcome Trust, which has long ties to the pharmaceutical industry. On the day the paper was published, emails show Farrar pushed for an edit to the piece. &#8220;Sorry to micromanage/micro edit! But would you be willing to change one sentence?”
He wanted to change the word “unlikely” to “improbable” so a sentence would read: “It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus.”
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Now, Farrar is about to become chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO). He is set to take the six-figure role in the second quarter of this year after stepping down as director of Wellcome.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a doctor, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11826847/Experts-call-lab-leak-denying-doctor-Jeremy-Farrar-sacked-World-Health-Organization.html">told</a> DailyMail.com that he opposes Farrar&#8217;s appointment.
&#8220;Jeremy Farrar, the guy who then publicly disdained the lab leak theory despite privately admitting he was still 50:50 on the lab leak should not be in charge of the WHO or any investigations into the origins of Covid,&#8221; Paul told the U.K. paper.
The Mail reported that emails leaked last year show Farrar privately expressed concern that COVID could have leaked from a lab in February 2020. &#8220;He famously told Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues that he was 50:50 between a lab leak and natural origin,&#8221; the paper said.
But just weeks later, Farrar signed his name to a letter in the Lancet medical publication denouncing the lab leak hypothesis as nothing more than a &#8220;conspiracy theory.&#8221;
Dr. David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., also told the Mail WHO should reconsider Farrar&#8217;s appointment.
&#8220;He first privately speculated on a lab leak origin for Covid. Yet, he then added his signature to a notorious Lancet letter seeking to debunk the lab leak theory. If he is to lead the WHO, it would be wise for Dr. Farrar to commission investigations of Covid&#8217;s origins entirely independent of the Organization&#8217;s hierarchy, himself included,&#8221; Livermore said.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Dr. Fauci Testifies Before Senate Committee On Federal Response To COVID-19

Sen. Rand Paul Says COVID Lab Leak-Denying Doctor Should NOT Be WHO’s Top Scientist

 Sen. Rand Paul Says COVID Lab Leak-Denying Doctor Jeremy Farrar Should Be Fired From New Post As World Health Organization's Top Scientist

Rand Paul

World

World Health Organization

Wuhan Institute of Virology

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a letter to President Joe Biden this week urging the president to allow Novak Djokovic, the world&#8217;s top-ranked tennis player, entry into the United States so that he could compete in a tournament being held in Florida.
Djokovic played through a hamstring injury at the start of the year on his way to winning the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the year.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/sports/tennis/djokovic-biden-miami-open-covid-vaccine.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that his problems began after the injury healed as his team realized that the next two important events were in the U.S., which does not allow unvaccinated foreigners into the country. Djokovic is not vaccinated against COVID. The report noted that some pro-vaccination medical experts have concluded that the restriction is no longer necessary.
Djokovic was <a href="https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/35795350/novak-djokovic-pulls-indian-wells-eve-draw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forced</a> to withdraw from competing in the two tournaments, one of which is being held in Miami.
&#8220;The only thing keeping Novak Djokovic from participating in the Miami Open tennis tournament is President Biden’s misguided and unscientific COVID-19 vaccination requirement for foreigner travelers,&#8221; DeSantis wrote on Twitter. &#8220;Mr. President – lift your restrictions and let him compete.&#8221;
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The only thing keeping Novak Djokovic from participating in the Miami Open tennis tournament is President Biden’s misguided and unscientific COVID-19 vaccination requirement for foreigner travelers.   Mr. President – lift your restrictions and let him compete. <a href="https://t.co/fFyhNoUV4S">pic.twitter.com/fFyhNoUV4S</a>
&mdash; Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1633233731514245121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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DeSantis&#8217; letter called the Biden administration&#8217;s refusal to allow him into the country &#8220;unfair, unscientific and unacceptable.&#8221;
&#8220;While Mr. Djokovic is surely a supreme competitive threat to his fellow tennis professionals, his presence in our country poses no meaningful health or public safety risk,&#8221; DeSantis said. &#8220;I note that since the onset of COVID-19, Mr. Djokovic has visited the United States at least twice — including once during your presidency — without any apparent health incident.&#8221;
DeSantis then suggested that a loophole could be used to skirt the Biden administration&#8217;s restrictions for keeping unvaccinated foreign nationals out of the U.S.
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&#8220;It is also not clear to me why, even by the terms of your own proclamation, Mr. Djokovic could not legally enter this country via boat,&#8221; DeSantis wrote. &#8220;Please confirm no later than Friday, March 10, 2023, that this method of travel into Florida would be permissible.&#8221;
DeSantis explained in the letter that Biden&#8217;s previous proclamations only issued restrictions on foreign nationals entering the U.S. through air travel and at &#8220;land ports of entry and ferry terminals at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders.&#8221;
&#8220;Your administration does not appear to have issued analogous restrictions for non-U.S. individuals seeking to enter our country by boat,&#8221; DeSantis noted.
DeSantis then pointed out how the administration flaunted its own rules to allow &#8220;thousands of unvaccinated migrants to enter our country through the southern border.&#8221;
&#8220;Mr. Djokovic is an extraordinary tennis player who should have every right to compete in this year&#8217;s Miami Open, which will commence on March 20,&#8221; DeSantis concluded. &#8220;I respectfully ask you to grant his requested exemption so that he may delight and inspire tennis fans in Florida and around the Nation.&#8221;

Ronald Reagan Library, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

DeSantis Blasts Biden For Denying Entry To World’s No. 1 Tennis Player, Floats Using Loophole To Get Him In

Florida

Novak Djokovic

Ron DeSantis

Authors <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/explosive-book-on-stolen-youth-examines-the-lefts-indoctrination-and-arms-parents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karol Markowicz and Bethany Mandel</a> warned parents that the Left is out to indoctrinate America&#8217;s children and won&#8217;t stop pushing its agenda of fear and confusion unless conservatives stand up, in an interview Monday with The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/ben-shapiro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Shapiro</a>.
The pair, whose new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Youth-Progressives-Replacing-Radicalism/dp/1956007083/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UH9OEB9AISKG&amp;keywords=Stolen+Youth&amp;qid=1678226763&amp;sprefix=stolen+youth%2Caps%2C150&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation</a>,&#8221; published by <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/collections/dw-books-1?_gl=1*13iqqxk*_ga*ODM3NDU0Ny4xNjc2NTg1OTky*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY3ODIyODAwMC40OS4wLjE2NzgyMjgwMDIuNTguMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DW Books,</a> said the left&#8217;s woke ideology push went into overdrive during the pandemic. The chat came during the extra section of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-ben-shapiro-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Ben Shapiro Show</a>&#8221; on Monday.
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Why are kids the target of woke indoctrination?<a href="https://twitter.com/karol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@karol</a>: &quot;During the pandemic&#8230;they were using the kids as child soldiers to push the spectacle&#8230;I was born in the Soviet Union. It was so reminiscent of the stories that my parents, my grandparents had told me that kids were the… <a href="https://t.co/iTcYo0rjmY">https://t.co/iTcYo0rjmY</a> <a href="https://t.co/4X2mqVPwmz">pic.twitter.com/4X2mqVPwmz</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1633507113262620679?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;So one of the things that we talk about in the book is that birth rates are so low for the left and that they are trying to indoctrinate our children,&#8221; Markowicz, a veteran journalist, said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not their own children. And it really is telling that they&#8217;re not having kids, but they&#8217;re pushing all the agendas that affect kids.&#8221;
She added that the book&#8217;s message is &#8220;parents should be afraid of this&#8221; and that it offers advice on how to fight back and protect children.
When it comes to the woke push against kids in school, during the pandemic and a little before,  concepts that had always existed in schools, such as the &#8220;No Place for Hate&#8221; signs, began moving further to the left.
&#8220;It became like, it&#8217;s not enough that we focus on climate change all the time,&#8221; Markowicz added. &#8220;We need to put on a protest with the children to show that we&#8217;re really against climate change. And it showed that it wasn&#8217;t just pushing the ideology. They were using the kids as child soldiers to push the spectacle &#8230;&#8221;
During the pandemic, it became forbidden for parents to say schools should open.
&#8220;It became, &#8216;You want teachers to die. You are a [Donald] Trump supporter. You are a terrible person and you might be shunned by your community,'&#8221; Markowicz said. &#8220;So parents saw this and they realized if it&#8217;s happening to us, it&#8217;s happening to our children and we need to do something,&#8221; Markowicz added.
Mandel said it&#8217;s evident leftists &#8220;don&#8217;t care about math and arithmetic because children can&#8217;t do math and arithmetic. It&#8217;s evidenced right in the test scores. Twenty-three schools in Baltimore, and not a single student can do math on level. They are achieving their goals.&#8221;
Markowicz said what we are seeing is the woke agenda is being pushed from corporations to colleges and down to grade and nursery schools.
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The journalist added that kids are &#8220;only allowed to have this one perspective. And it&#8217;s not good for anybody. It&#8217;s not good for society, it&#8217;s not good for the kid. And nobody seems to really care on the left. This is causing so much damage.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/authors-assert-building-resilience-is-essential-for-todays-young-adults-in-new-book-stolen-youth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Authors Assert Building Resilience Is Essential For Today&#8217;s Young Adults In New Book &#8216;Stolen Youth&#8217;</a>

16x9Stolen Youth-2

‘Stolen Youth’: Co-Authors Tell Ben Shapiro Of Left’s Relentless Woke Push On Kids

'Stolen Youth': Co-Authors Tell Ben Shapiro Of Left's Relentless Woke Push On Kids

Ben Shapiro

School Lockdowns

The Ben Shapiro Show

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-kingdom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British</a> Health Minister Matt Hancock wanted to “frighten the pants” off the nation to scare residents into compliance with a sweeping COVID <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> regime, according to more than 100,000 leaked messages among senior officials in the United Kingdom.
Former British Prime Minister <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/boris-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boris Johnson</a> had vowed that citizens would be able to reunite with their loved ones during the Christmas season of 2020, leading to concerns among officials that the administration would receive backlash over continued lockdowns. Hancock, a fellow member of the Conservative Party, and Damon Poole, his media adviser, expressed frustration that complication with Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, was “taking the top line” in the news and distracting from the danger of the virus.
The officials agreed to declare a new strain of COVID called Alpha or Kent, according to a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/04/project-fear-covid-lockdown-files-matt-hancock-whatsapp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Telegraph. Isabel Oakeshott, a journalist who assisted Hancock with writing his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pandemic-Diaries-inside-Britains-against-ebook/dp/B0BBSVDX4M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6IU6JDFSTYDF&amp;keywords=pandemic+diaries&amp;qid=1678201046&amp;s=digital-text&amp;sprefix=pandemic+diarie%2Cdigital-text%2C118&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memoir</a> about the response to the pandemic, had leaked the communications to the outlet.
“Rather than doing too much forward signaling, we can roll pitch with the new strain,” Poole suggested on December 13, 2020. “We frighten the pants [off] everyone with the new strain,” Hancock replied, leading Poole to concur that the move “will get proper [behavior] change.”
Hancock then asked when they should “deploy the new variant.” Poole said that “we need to be more cautious” to avoid implicating schools in subsequent lockdowns.
As with many other nations, lockdowns and other public health mandates severely rocked the economy and societal well-being of the United Kingdom. Beyond a rapid <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/articles/gdpandeventsinhistoryhowthecovid19pandemicshockedtheukeconomy/2022-05-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapse</a> in gross domestic product that immediately followed the lockdowns in the spring of 2020, inflation in the United Kingdom remains persistently high at 8.8% year-over-year due to supply chain disruptions, according to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices#:~:text=Consumer%20price%20inflation%2C%20UK%3A%20January%202023&amp;text=The%20Consumer%20Prices%20Index%20including,from%209.2%25%20in%20December%202022." target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Office of National Statistics.
Johnson and other officials started to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boris-johnson-announces-uk-is-near-end-of-lockdowns-mask-wearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reverse</a> mask mandates and lockdowns as late as the summer of 2021. Conservative members of Parliament had nevertheless already grown skeptical of the mandates and balked at a plan to implement regional tiered lockdowns in December 2020. Hancock and Allan Nixon, a parliamentary adviser for the British Department of Health, sought to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/secret-spreadsheet-targeted-mps-critical-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whip</a> votes in support of the tiered system, including the blockage of projects in the constituencies represented by noncompliant lawmakers.
One of those projects was a new center for children with learning disabilities in Bury, Greater Manchester, an area represented by Conservative lawmaker James Daly. Nixon <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/matt-hancocks-plan-block-funding-disabled-children-mp-opposed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that whips could “call him up” and inform him that the initiative would be “off the table if he rebels.”
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“These guys’ re-election hinges on us in a lot of instances, and we know what they want. We should seriously consider using it,” Nixon added. “Yes 100%,” Hancock replied.
Hancock also <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/05/matt-hancock-rejected-covid-self-isolation-advice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected</a> counsel from British Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty in November 2020 to replace the mandatory two-week COVID quarantine policy for individuals who tested positive for COVID and their contacts with five days of testing because the move would “imply we’ve been getting it wrong.” Hancock complained on November 17, 2020, that the new policy would seem like a “massive loosening,” even though Whitty informed him that models suggested five days of testing would be “pretty well as good.”
Between the day the message was sent and August 16, 2021, when exemptions from self-isolation were unveiled, some eight million people were marked as contacts of positive cases and told to quarantine. More than 20 million people had been told to self-isolate before the policy was entirely dropped in February 2022.
More messages <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/consultants-paid-total-1m-day-work-nhs-test-trace-leaks-reveal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicate</a> that external consultants were paid as much as £1 million, or $1.2 million, each day for more than one year to support an ailing Test and Trace system from the National Health Service. Hancock special adviser Emma Dean had been “nagging” the National Health Service about the runaway expenditures since November 2020, although the agency only announced that the Test and Trace initiative would be run with “an absolute minimum” of outside consultants as late as July 2022.
Hancock contended last week that there was “absolutely no public interest case” for the leak of his messages by Oakeshott, according to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/02/matt-hancock-calls-isabel-oakeshott-whatsapp-messages-leak-massive-betrayal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Guardian. “I am also sorry for the impact on the very many people, political colleagues, civil servants and friends, who worked hard with me to get through the pandemic and save lives,” he continued.
“What a ridiculous defense,” Oakeshott responded. “For someone who’s as intelligent as Matt Hancock to issue a statement saying there is no public interest in these revelations is patently absurd. And he knows that very well.”

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British Lockdown Official Wanted To ‘Frighten The Pants’ Off Nation And Asked When To ‘Deploy The New Variant,’ Leaked Messages Show

British Lockdown Official Wanted To 'Frighten The Pants' Off Nation

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